Islamabad: Lahore Police have submitted a reply in the Lahore High Court (LHC) with regard to upcoming Aurat (Women) March and assured the court that if the district administration allowed the organisers of the march to go ahead, it would provide them foolproof security.
The police representative, however, drew the attention of the court that the Mall Road was off-limits for any public gathering.
A petition was moved in the Lahore High Court for directions to the district administration to stop the march in Lahore scheduled for Sunday, March 8.
Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh, the chief justice LHC, had sought a reply from the district administration and police following a petition filed by a local lawyer Azhar Siddique. He termed in his petition the march was anti-state and immoral.
The court, however, while listening to the police, district administration and organisers of the march, made it clear to the petitioner that under the constitution the march could not be stopped.
He said the marchers should “refrain from hate speech and immorality”. The court directed the district administration to come up quickly and with sound reasons whether it was going to allow the march or not.
Nighat Dad, founder of the Digital Rights Foundation — one of the organisers of the march, assured the court that no unlawful action would take place during the march.
She also presented guidelines for participants of the march in the court. Justice Rashid Sheikh remarked, “There are no two opinions about women’s rights and it is the responsibility of the organisers of the Aurat March to ensure that no immoral slogans are raised at the march.”
Leader of the hardliner political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman had a day earlier warned the organisers against holding ‘vulgar’ and ‘immoral’ rally in the name of women. “If the state allows them to go ahead we shall stop them by force,” Fazlur Rehman had warned while addressing a workers’ rally.
Similarly, in Lahore, Karachi and other cities banners with anti-march slogans were seen and people fear clashes between hardliners and Aurat March supporters.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Pakistan Bar Council have announced to support and participate in the march. Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari has also extended support to the marchers and condemned the calls for banning it.
“Women, like other segments of society, have a right to peacefully protest and demand their rights already enshrined in our Constitution,” Mazari said on Twitter.
“Our government is committed to ensuring an end to discrimination against and harassment of women and has put in place programs, policies and legislative measures to empower women and girls,” she said.
